Abstract:

Memet Baydur (1951-2001) is a playwright who appointed his place in Modern Turkish Theatre with 23 of his plays written in the social realist approach, in the last 20 years of his life. His plays cover the 1980’s. Baydur reflected on the events and facts experienced during this historical period, writing his plays through a critic’s eye. Baydur’s plays tell us about the class conflict in society through the inner world conflict of social classes and life conditions of people who came from different classes. These conditions create the main points of his plays, not the events themselves. These texts, each of which were performed in private and state theatres, question some problematic realities about humans and society. The Lorry (1990), is his 9thplay after his first play Lemon (1982). It focuses on the difficult working conditions of a certain part of society during that era. This work evokes sadness in the controversial economical relations. It is the raw story of people who are bored with despair, lacking alternatives, shown through needy immigrant peasants in tough life conditions. It is the drama of the New World’s peons yearning to live like a human, who put their lives in danger to maintain his family and put their strength in bargain. In this aspect, The Lorry, is “a bargain play, a bargain of life” in Baydur’s words. The work aims to demonstrate the social realities while adding some conventional sense of humor, instead of just saying the social realities as they are. In this work, document searching method has been used. The purpose of this paper is to introduce Memet Baydur Theatre in general terms and to analyze The Lorry in terms of subject, fiction, time, characters and theme and to determine its scientific value.

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